So, back in May after the relaunch of the blog was planned I decided I needed to strike out on an (off) road trip. The overall plan was to head out to a pub owned by a mate & stay off road as much as possible. Well, after a bit of planning & some last minute buying of panniers the first trip was a great success. We set off from the homestead along the Grand Union canal, heading upto lapworth to join the Stratford canal.  Heading through idyllic scenery & on what at that point was the nicest day of the year! Tan lines to be worked on!
We hit Hatton flight early on & tweeted a few snaps of the flight, love the can do attitude of the men who built it, amazing work! Then upto shrewley & through the village, there's a long tunnel but its boats only, the towpaths easy enough to follow though. Pressing on upto Kingswood junction & the switching onto the Stratford canal we meandered along towpaths & over bridges. We bumped into (not literally!)  one of the new Anthony Gormley Land sculptures, a life size cast iron man, located at Lengthsmans cottage Lowsenford. It's a great piece of art in a lovely spot & I now want to visit the other installations around the UK. Later we stopped & had a chat with a lock keeper doing his lock checks by Bearley, then on into Stratford itself & the madding tourist crowd. A short pit stop & it was off out onto the Greenway at Stratford. A lovely disused railway line which is well laid for cycles & all.
Lunch was taken care of by me with some trackside cooking of a Sri Lankan green bean & cashew nut curry. Real simple stuff. I chose to do this for lunch as none of the ingredients would go off in the panniers! Fry off a Thai green curry paste (a Thai one gives you a suitable base without too much prep), add some minced galangal, extra dried red chillis (Sri Lankan is almost always hot!) add raw green beans, gently fry. Then a carton of coconut cream (no calorie counting on the bike!) simmer gently, add a half dozen curry leaves. Cook out for another 6-8 minutes, season & sprinkle in cashews, easy. Super fast lunch in about 12 minutes! Several passers by commented on how nice it smelled, it tasted even better.
After the lunch stop it was on & out to the pub. We followed the Greenway until the first road junction & then you head right & its fairly straight from there, arrive at The Cottage of content, in the pretty village of Barton. We were camping in the garden, a great facility to offer at a pub! Tents were sorted bikes stashed & it was time for some liquid refreshment!
I'm an ale man & was all set to sample the offerings but, they were all beers I'd enjoyed before, then I spotted four real ciders! So deal done. Cider o clock! I have to say cheddar valley cider is top notch! If you like an authentic flat cider you'd love it. Full fruit flavour, sweet but with a dry edge & a crisp finish! Perfect thirst quencher!
The evening was an inpromtu mini music festival. More ciders including a raspberry ifused pink & a beef curry. Some local musical talent & a group called Terry & Gerry (I hadn't heard of them either!) who had opened for Status Quo at Glastonbury on the Friday! A great sound, skiffle blues type. A good chilled out sound for a chilled evening.
 After a gnarly sleep due to no roll mat due to no room in panniers, I was up early with aching hips! Sunday was a wet one, so an inpromtu omelette under a kids play den for breaky we packed up & headed for home. We took a more direct route home due to a poorly fitting saddle for my ride partner! Not sure how much 'fun' the ride home was! Back at the homestead, time for a coffee & hose down of the bike & me!. That done my mind wanders to planning another trip out, maybe this one should be on a tandem???